World
Uganda president declines to sign queerphobic bill
Measure sent back to Parliament for review
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has refused to sign the country’s infamous “Sexual Offenses Bill” that Parliament approved in May, on grounds that it details offenses already covered by pre-existing laws.
“President Museveni has rejected to assent to the Sexual Offenses Bill, saying many provisions are redundant and already provided for in other legislations,” the Daily Monitor reports. “Deputy Speaker of Parliament Anita Among made the communication to the House …”
The bill has been returned to the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs for review “to address the redundancies.”
Although this is a positive development for LGBTQ Ugandans and activists, the East African country is embroiled in harsh queerphobic sentiment institutionally. And there still exists a culture that makes it unsafe to live in Uganda as a queer person.
The Washington Blade spoke with Ikechukwu Uzoma, staff attorney for RFK Human Rights, and Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), before Museveni’s announcement about the details of the Sexual Offenses Bill and how its enactment could reshape Uganda’s LGBTQ landscape.
What is the Sexual Offenses Bill?
The Sexual Offenses Bill, which MP Monicah Amoding originally introduced in 2015, “seeks to consolidate laws relating to sexual offenses and provide procedural and evidential requirements during trial of sexual offenses and proposes several measures to check among others, sexual harassment in schools by guardians or teachers.”
The bill would also criminalize same-sex relationships and sex work.
“The laws were passed … reiterating sections of legislation first enforced in the country by British colonial rule,” the Guardian reports. “They condemn same-sex couples who perform acts deemed against the ‘order of nature’ to 10 years’ imprisonment.”
OutRight Action International also notes “same-sex relations have been criminalized in Uganda since British colonial times in sections 145 on ‘unnatural offenses’ and 148 on ‘indecent practices’ of the Penal Code, with a maximum sentence of life in prison foreseen. Clause 11 of the Sexual Offenses Bill further confirms this existing criminalization.”
Parliament passed the bill in May of this year. Questions regarding its legitimacy rose among LGBTQ individuals and activists as Museveni won his sixth presidential term and new MPs were sworn in.
“[When the bill was enacted], that was a time when Parliament was coming to an end, before we went into elections and [installed] a new Parliament,” said Jjuuko. “So when the new Parliament was sworn in, there was a question around what the actual legal status of a bill was that had been passed by Parliament, but not signed by the president.”
Although the proposed legislation went through an “in limbo” phase and was not fully bonafide, Jjuuko said Ugandans treated the legislation as if it were fully implemented.
“In Uganda, the law matters, but it also doesn’t. In other words it doesn’t matter what the situation is. With what the law right now is, the persecution of LGBT people will remain,” said Jjuuko.
Jjuuko further mentioned that when politicians have legislative ideas, they campaign for them in Parliament discussions and media appearances, thereby signalling to the country’s population the seriousness of whatever ideas they propose. Additionally, the word “bill” in Luganda, the country’s local language, has the same translation as the word “law.”
These campaigns, coupled with the lack of a clear distinction between a bill and law in Luganda, create a general culture where the country’s population will behave as if it were an instituted law, regardless of whether it has been signed or not.
In response to what this means for law enforcement officials and how they would treat LGBTQ citizens, Jjuuko said that police officers rely on a new form of LGBTQ persecution: Charging individuals with committing “negligent acts.”
“The police, who should know better, usually charge people with either an existing offense or some new offense,” said Jjuuko. “There’s now a new trend in Uganda [where police officers] charge someone with negligent acts of spreading disease infections, and this comes from provisions in the old penal code which is not even about COVID-19. It just [resurfaced when the pandemic began].”
Jjuuko also said the police are aware that they’re unable to charge an individual with “carnal knowledge.” They hence resort to charges of participating in intimate acts that can spread disease infections. So, even though general conversations focus on minimizing the spread of COVID-19, the larger picture depicts a commercial campaign to curb LGBTQ rights in Uganda.
This has led to an increase in mass arrests of LGBTQ individuals, with 44 people being arrested as recently as June, and consequently being charged with breaching pandemic restrictions as they pertain to the sizes of public gatherings.
What’s next?
Now that Museveni has refused to assent the bill, it has been returned to Parliament for further review. It will be presented to him again for re-consideration.
Jjuuko mentioned that if Museveni refuses to assent the bill once again, Parliament can enact it into a law by voting and taking advantage of what they call a “supermajority.”
In the event this happens Uzoma said, “it’s very easy, we [RFK Human Rights] just follow [Jjuuko’s] lead, and do whatever he tells us to do. [However], I think that [the bill being passed] really does change the matrix of decision making and planning.”
Uzoma further mentioned that whatever work RFK Human Rights is currently doing they will continue to do. If the bill is passed, it is inevitable that there will be more arrests and convictions. Therefore, the U.N.-style engagements that RFK Human Rights has had in the past around such detentions would continue.
Uzoma also said that the RFK Human Rights would also probably create a well-structured campaign that not only serves those in Uganda, but also covers the extraterritorial jurisdiction components detailed in the bill that would make it illegal for Ugandans to participate in same-sex relations outside of the country.
Jjuuko is certain his advocacy work will persist.
“I know for sure that whatever happens, our work will go on. Nothing is going to stop us because I kind of feel like we’ve lived through worse,” said Jjuuko.
Jjuuko is aware of society’s progress with adopting more favorable views of the LGBTQ community and has emphasized that this has also influenced progress for Uganda.
“There’s positive continuous progress [and] they are fighting us because they know that we are winning and making progress. So, [the endless persecutions] are signs that [the government] also realizes something is wrong in their own strategy of making sure that there are no LGBTI people in Uganda,” said Jjuuko.
Poland
Polish court rules country must recognize same-sex marriages from EU states
Poland ‘must comply with European Union law’
Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court on March 20 ruled the country must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other European Union states.
The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg last November ruled in favor of a same-sex couple who challenged Poland’s refusal to recognize their German marriage.
The couple, who lives in Poland, brought their case to Polish courts in 2019. The Supreme Administrative Court referred it to the EU Court of Justice.
“Today’s ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court clearly demonstrates that Poland, as a member state of the European Union, must comply with European Union law,” said Przemek Walas, advocacy manager for the Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement. “The Supreme Administrative Court rightly upheld the interpretation of the Court in Luxembourg and indicated that the only way to implement this ruling is to allow the transcription of a foreign marriage certificate.”
“This ruling is a significant step towards marital equality, but certainly not sufficient,” added Walas.
Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia, Malta, Greece, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia are the EU countries that have extended full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Poland — along with Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia — are the four EU countries with no legal recognition of same-sex couples.
The Washington Blade on Wednesday spoke with Max Polonsky, a queer American who lives in Israel, about the Iran war and its impact on the country.
“It’s been tiring,” Polonsky told the Blade during a telephone interview from his home in Jaffa, an ancient port city with a large Arab population that is now part of Tel Aviv.
Polonsky grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J. He lived in D.C. for eight years before he moved to Israel in March 2022.
Israel and the U.S. on Feb. 28 launched airstrikes against Iran.
One of them killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran in response launched missiles and drones against Israel and other countries that include Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and Cyprus.
An Iranian missile on March 1 killed nine people and injured 27 others in Beit Shemesh, an Israeli town that is roughly 20 miles west of Jerusalem. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile that struck a hair salon in Beit Awa, a Palestinian town in the West Bank, on Wednesday killed four women and injured more than a dozen others.
An Iranian drone that hit a command center in Kuwait on March 1 killed six U.S. soldiers: Sgt. Declan Coady, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien. Another American servicemember, Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, died on March 8, a week after Iranian drones and missiles targeted the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Iranian drones and missiles have damaged hotels, airports, oil refineries, and other civilian and energy infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and elsewhere. Israel on Wednesday attacked Iran’s South Pars natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.
The Associated Press notes roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Gas prices in the U.S. and around the world continue to increase because the war has essentially closed the strategic waterway to ship traffic.
The war also left hundreds of thousands of people who were traveling in the Middle East stranded.
The Blade on March 6 spoke with Mario, who had stopped in his native Lebanon while traveling from the U.S. to India for work.
Mario was about to board a flight at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Feb. 28 when the war began and authorities closed the country’s airspace. Mario is now back in the U.S.
Polonsky told the Blade there were “alarms all day … sometimes multiple alarms an hour, sometimes every hour, every two hours” on Feb. 28.
Israel’s Home Front Command typically issues warnings about 10 minutes ahead of an anticipated Iranian missile attack. Sirens then sound 90 seconds before an expected strike.
People in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and in other cities in central Israel have 90 seconds to seek shelter if a rocket or missile is fired from Lebanon or the Gaza Strip. (Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militant group in Lebanon that Israel and the U.S. have designated a terrorist organization, launched rockets at the Jewish State after Khamenei’s death. Israel, in turn, continues to carry out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed upwards of 1,200 people when they launched a surprise attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip.) People who live close to Lebanon and Gaza have 15 seconds to seek shelter.
Polonsky has a safe room — known as a “mamad” — in his apartment. Polonsky also uses it as his home office and a second bedroom.
He told the Blade the alerts in recent days have become less frequent.
“We’ll get maybe a handful of alarms during the day, maybe some at night,” said Polonsky.
Israel on June 12, 2025, launched airstrikes against Iran that targeted the country’s nuclear and military facilities. The subsequent war, which lasted 12 days, prompted the cancellation of Tel Aviv’s annual Pride parade. An Iranian missile destroyed Mash Central, the city’s last gay bar.
Iran on Oct. 1, 2024, launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. This reporter arrived in Israel three days later to cover the first anniversary of Oct. 7 and the impact the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip had on LGBTQ Israelis and Palestinians.
‘Iranian regime was bad’
Polonsky admitted he doesn’t “know what to think” about the latest war against Iran.
“I don’t know what I think about the war,” he said. “Ultimately what happens is just not in my personal control: whatever Donald Trump, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, the ayatollah, whoever is running Iran are going to organize and launch attacks and reach any deals is not anything I personally have any control over, so I try to just kind of let that aspect of it go as I’m living my life.”
Polonsky told the Blade he understands “there are very serious questions about how” the war started, and Congress’s role in it.
“Those are serious and valid, important questions,” he said. “And at the same time, the Iranian regime was bad.”
Polonsky noted Iran has supported and funded Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and other groups “who were attacking Israel.” Polonsky added the Iranian government has “terribly oppressed their people.”
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
Reports indicate Iranian authorities killed upwards of 30,000 people during anti-government protests that began late last year. Sources with whom the Blade spoke said LGBTQ Iranians are among those who participated in the demonstrations.
“I’m not sad to see them pressured,” said Polonsky, referring to the Iranian regime.
He also described Khamenei as “a bad guy.”
“Him not being there is better,” said Polonsky.
State Department
Report: US to withhold HIV aid to Zambia unless mineral access expanded
New York Times obtained Secretary of State Marco Rubio memo
The State Department is reportedly considering withholding assistance for Zambians with HIV unless the country’s government allows the U.S. to access more of its minerals.
The New York Times on Monday reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo to State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs staffers wrote the U.S. “will only secure our priorities by demonstrating willingness to publicly take support away from Zambia on a massive scale.” The newspaper said it obtained a copy of the letter.
Zambia is a country in southern Africa that borders Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Times notes upwards of 1.3 million Zambians receive daily HIV medications through PEPFAR. The newspaper reported Rubio in his memo said the Trump-Vance administration could “significantly cut assistance” as soon as May.
“Reports of (the) State Department withholding lifesaving HIV treatment in return for mining concessions in Zambia does not make us safer, stronger, or more prosperous,” said U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday. “Monetizing innocent people’s lives further undermines U.S. global leadership and is just plain wrong.”
The Washington Blade has reached out to the State Department for comment.
Zambia received breakthrough HIV prevention drug through PEPFAR
Rubio on Jan. 28, 2025, issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
The State Department last September announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir in countries with high prevalence rates. Zambia two months later received the first doses of the breakthrough HIV prevention drug.
Kenya and Uganda are among the African countries have signed health agreements with the U.S. since the Trump-Vance administration took office.
The Times notes the countries that signed these agreements pledged to increase health spending. The Blade last month reported LGBTQ rights groups have questioned whether these agreements will lead to further exclusion and government-sanctioned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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